Sibling Rivalry
by Dougster
Summary: Betty's parents adopt a baby boy. When she find out who the little darling is, she freaks. Take one guess....
1. Another Happy Birthday Until

Betty was enjoying her birthday party in the backyard when her bracelet chimed.

"Uh-oh! Duty calling! Well, hopefully it's nothing too terribly important..."

She hurried away from the moonwalk where her friends were jumping and squealing, past the pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey game, the balloons and the flying confetti and the melted remains of the star-speckled ice cream cake, into the kitchen. Betty's parents had gone away for a few minutes, but she knew her friends could look after themselves. A touch of her bracelet, and a three-dimensional hologram of her begilled superior officer buzzed to life.

She saluted. "Atomic Betty reporting for duty, Admiral!"

"Happy birthday, Betty. Unfortunately, that's not the reason I'm calling. Our galactic tracking systems have picked up a major villain in system 42, planet 7A5."

"Why--that's Earth! I've never gotten an assignment to my home planet before. Where on the planet is it, Admiral?" She tingled, thinking of all the places she'd learned about in school but had never gotten a chance to see. "China? The Middle East? A South Seas island?"

"Hmmm, let me see. Ah, yes. The exact location relayed by our scanners is region 27, sector 12, grid 3.992."

Betty calculated it in her head; then she scrunched her eyebrows. "Are you sure? That's..."

She heard the living front door open and close, and the singsong voice of her parents: "Oh, Behhh-ty! We're home, and we have a special birthday surpriiiiiise!"

"Gotta go, Admiral. I'll call you back." She clicked off the hologram just as her parents burst into the kitchen. Without missing a beat she turned and gave them a smile. Her dad was holding something behind his back.

"There you are!" mother gushed. "Betty, we're just so excited, because we've got the _best_ birthday present for you _ever!_ Ready?"

Her father positively beamed. "Heeeeere it is!" And he brought it into view.

Betty stared. Her jaw dropped. _No. It can't be. It can't!_

Her mother was saying, "Remember how we talked about adding to our family, and you said how much you'd like a baby brother? Well, we went to this new adoption agency..."

There, gurgling contentedly in dad's arms, was a baby indeed. But not a cute baby, or a normal baby, or even (though no one but Betty could have known this) a baby from this earth! No, this green, snaggle-toothed, beady-eyed brat resembled Ming the Merciless, and could grow up to become just as bad. For this baby was...Infantor!

Betty gawked until her mother said, "Isn't he _keee-ute?"_ Infantor leered at her and giggled.

"Betty?" Her father looked concerned now.

"I...ah..." She took a step backwards. "I'm just so happy I'm gonna cry, and that would be embarrassing so I'll go to my room--"

She fled, slamming her bedroom door shut and flinging herself on her bed. Mind reeling, she activated her bracelet. "Admiral DeGill! You'll never guess what happened! The villain is Infantor, and he's--" she choked--"my _brother!"_


	2. Infantors Lullaby

As coherently as she could, Betty explained the situation.

The Admiral listened patiently, puffing his pipe. "I see. I wonder how he managed that? Well, whatever the case, it's doubtless he's up to no good. I need you to keep an eye on him. Fortunately that should be easy enough, given your circumstances."

"Uh--yes, sir. I'll try to find out what his plan is."

"That's the spirit, Atomic Betty! DeGill out." The hologram crackled and vanished.

Betty seethed, thinking of her parents cuddling that little fiend. If they only knew! If only she could tell them! The Termi-nannys. The holo-game Infantor had trapped her and Sparky and X-5 in, forcing them to play their way out. What was he up to now? She took a deep breath and headed back.

Mom and dad were playing with him in the living room. They had him dressed in a little blue jumpsuit with a yellow rocketship on the front. Purrsey was sitting on the floor, looking at the new baby slit-eyed, the way she usually looked at Betty.

It was all Betty could manage to stomach the sight of Infantor getting all her parents' attention. It was one thing to battle him out in the far reaches of the galaxy, but here in her own home--!

The baby held out his arms to her, looking positively delighted. "Bet-ty!"

"Ah, look at that!" Mother had positively died and gone to heaven, by the looks of her. "He's picked up on your name already! Here."

Betty shrank back as if mother was holding out a bundle of poison. "Uh...mom..."

"Go ahead, dear," Dad said. "He won't bite." Laughter.

_That's what you think!_ But there was nothing else to do. It took all Betty's strength to take the squirming thing from her mother.

"Ahhhhh, look at that!" Mom and dad lounged on the couch, an arm around each other. "The way he _smiled_ when you took him!" "Listen to him gurgle--careful, Betty, you're getting slobber on you." "Oh, listen, he's trying to say something! Yes, he's asking for his lullaby!"

Betty's gag reflex kept kicking in, which made made it hard to speak. "L-lullab-by?"

Dad held out a scrap of paper. "Would you believe it? He sang it himself on the way home, and I wrote it down on this parking ticket. What a smart boy! Here, mom and I will sing it so you'll know how it goes."

And to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," they sang:

_"Baby boy, it's your big day,_

_now, at last, you'll have your way!_

_All your life from now will be, _

_one big party, and you'll see_

_that stoo-pid a-tomic girl_

_beaten right in her own world."_

"Boy!" Dad's smile was bright enough to dazzle poor Betty, who was getting quite a bit of slobber on the favorite dress she'd worn for her birthday. "Does he have some imagination or what? That part about the 'atomic girl'...hmmmm..." His face screwed up in thought. "Whoever does he mean, I wonder?"

"Oh, never mind!" Mother was bouncing in her seat. "Sing it to him, Betty! Oh, wouldn't it be cute to hear Betty sing it?"

"What?" Betty almost dropped him. He leered up at her.

"Why, sure!" Dad's smile returned full force. "Go ahead, Betty! Sing it!"

"Sing it, honey!" mother chimed in. Betty's face turned white.

Both parents were urging her now. "Sing it, honey. Sing it!"

Then came dinnertime. Mother placed Infantor in a high chair and pulled it up to the table.

"Here, little baybee-waybee." She spooned applesauce into that toothy mouth. "Does snookums like it?" She and dad laughed. Betty stared down at her food and wondered if she would ever have an appetite again.

_Snookums--isn't that what mom used to call Purrsey? _

Betty looked up and saw the cat lurking in the kitchen doorway, glaring at the family. Then the cat gave a yowl and leaped away as a gob of applesauce splatted the floor where he had been standing.

"Hey-hey, how about that!" Dad chuckled. "Does the baby have some aim, or what?"

Betty stared at him in disbelief. "Dad! He's wasting food--"

_Splat!_ Betty sputtered and clawed at her face; it was covered with applesauce. "Ohhhh!"

Infantor shrieked with laughter, clapping his hands.

"Mom!" Betty shouted through the mess. "Dad!"

Mother reached for her napkin. "Oh, now don't take it so badly, honey! He's just showing he likes you--see how big his grin is? There now, let me clean you off." Mother dabbed Betty's face.

"Weeeee!" The baby proceeded to sling plates, glasses, anything he could reach, all over the kitchen. _Smash! Crash!_

"Wow!" Dad ducked as the flying gravy bowl whizzed over his head. It splattered him as it flew by. "I'd forgotten how energetic babies are."

Betty pushed back her chair. "May I be excused? I can't eat in a war zone!"

Mother pointed to Betty's plate. "First you have to finish every bite. Growing girls need their vitamins," she turned back to Infantor, "just wike wittle baby boys, isn't that right little snookums?"

_Fine!_ Betty scowled and folded her arms. _Then I guess I'll just sit here all night--_

Infantor snatched her plate and sent it spinning straight up. It shattered against the ceiling, raining broccoli, noodles and sticky beef casserole down on the family.

"Hmmm." Dad wiped food off himself. "Well Betty, I guess you can be excused now."

_To be continued..._


	3. The Plan comes clearer

At last Betty got Infantor alone. Mom and Dad had placed a crib in the same corner of their bedroom where Purrsey used to sleep--until now--and Betty had asked if she could tuck him in for the night.

"Finally!" she hissed, closing the door. She tossed her foe on the bed and jabbed a finger at him. "Start talking, Infantor! What's this all about?"

He let out an evil cackle. "Well, I think my lullaby says it all, don't it?"

"You're up to something."

"Ain't we always." He bubbled with pleasure.

"'We?'"

"Me and the..._Maximus_ Adoption Agency. Mr. I.Q. has had you under surveillance, and when he found out what mommy and daddy wanted, he set it up. Heeheehee!"

She advanced on him. "We're going to see _my_ parents right now, and you're going to tell them it was all a mistake and then I never want to see you in my home or on my planet again, understand?"

But at that moment, mom and dad crashed into the bedroom. "Oh, just look at them!" mother gushed. "Brother and sister bonding!"

"Goo-goo." Infantor held out his arms to mom, who gathered him up. "Gah-gah!"

Dad stood tall with pride, watching the scene. "We're going to be such a happy family!"

Betty's heart sank. _I thought...we already were._

Purrsey, standing behind dad, coughed up a hairball.

The next day, Mom was spoon-feeding Infantor when Betty's bracelet went off. She ran down the hall and activated the hologram. "Yes, Admiral?"

"Atomic Betty, thank heavens you're there! We've just received word that Maximus I.Q. is readying a major assault on the Lode Star system. Our intelligence indicates he wants to use its vast natural resources to build fleets of destroyer robots large enough to overrun every major planet in the galaxy. We need you to stop it!"

Betty knew that system. Its fourteen planets were indeed the richest in the known galaxy. If Maximus gained control of it, there was no telling how many robots he could build, and how fast!

She smiled and saluted, welcoming a chance to get away from her domestic nightmare. "I'm on it, Admiral!"

Suddenly a fearful squawking started in the kitchen. "Bet-ty!" Infantor was howling to raise the roof. "Want Bet-ty!"

"Betty!" Mom called out. "Your baby brother's asking for you. Oh, isn't that _sweet!"_

The girl tightened. "Uh, mom? There's something I have to do--"

"During summer vacation? What would that be, dear? Come on, your brother's starting to cry." An awful _waaaaaaAAAAAHHHH_ was starting, like fingernails dragged across a blackboard. Betty winced.

Finally, defeated, she shuffled out to the kitchen.

"Bet-ty!"

Infantor looked _so_ happy to see her.

"Admiral?"

After a minute of having the villain slobber all over her again, Betty managed to return the baby to her mother, mumbling that she had to use the bathroom. Now she stood in there with the door closed, hearing Infantor wailing down the hall.

"Betty--my goodness, what is that noise?--I thought you were on your way! What's the matter?"

"You hear it! That little mutant keeps yelling for me, and my mom won't let me go!"

"Surely you can get away for just--"

"WWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

The voice was so loud and so screechy it made the hologram flicker. DeGill was wincing too now, hands over his ears, and Betty was sure she was going to be sick.

"Sir," she croaked. "I...don't think I'm going to make it...you'll just have to send...Sparky and X-5...without me."

"Yes. I guess we'll have to. I'll be in touch. DeGill out." Hastily he disconnected, and the hologram vanished.

"Honey!" Mother yelled over the din.

Betty returned with head hung.


	4. Betty hatches a plan of her own

Shortly afterward, the Admiral called again. This time Infantor was in the living room, scribbling crayon pictures in a notebook, and mom and dad were sitting on the couch adoring him. Betty ran back to the bathroom and activated her bracelet. "Atomic Betty here!"

The moment she saw DeGill, she knew something was wrong. His uniform was disheveled and his cap was askew. "Admiral, what is it?"

"I regret to say your cohorts didn't do so well on the mission. Sparky got distracted when the ship passed a Galactic Gourmet A-Go-Go restaurant and couldn't resist stopping for a bite, despite X-5's warnings. It was a trap--a whole battalion of Maximus' soldier robots were inside waiting for him. Your crew members barely got away with their lives, and the robots chased them all the way back to base."

Betty listened in silence. "Back to base? The--uh--secret base?"

"Yes. The enemy did a lot of damage to it before they left. Meanwhile, Maximus took the Lode Star system and launched a mass-assembly of destroyer robots--thousands of them--millions of them! And he's still making more! Atomic Betty, surely you can get away somehow!"

Betty cringed; the screaming had begun again from the living room. "Want BET-TY! WAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

_"Betty!"_ her parents cried.

She fought back tears. "Admiral, I..."

A resigned look settled over DeGill's face. "Very well. If you cannot, you cannot."

"No! I'll find a way somehow, I promise! Betty out."

But it was no good. She racked her mind for every possible excuse, asked to go visit Noah, volunteered for errands, even tried to take out the garbage--nothing. The moment she started for the door, Infantor would start his infernal squalling.

"I'll go tonight," she told herself. "Even he has to sleep sometime!"

Unfortunately, so did she. She was awakened the next morning by the chiming of her bracelet. Betty lifted her head, blinking, still in her rumpled dress, hair a tangled mess, lying stomach-down on her bed.

She lifted an arm, tried to salute. "Atomic Betty... reporting...for..."

She let her hand drop. _Who am I kidding?_

She had never seen DeGill look more frazzled. His eyes were bloodshot, and his cap was missing. In the background she heard a pandemonium of explosions, laser cannons and shouts.

"Atomic Betty, I _beg_ you! Maximus is _this_ close to taking over the galaxy! He's eluded our tracking systems, and now he's launched his new destroyer robots, controlling them from an unknown location. They're everywhere--it's all we can do to hold them off!"

Betty's eyes flared. She sprang from the bed. "I'm on it, Admiral! This time there's no stopping--"

A _WAAAAHHHH!_ from down the hall cut her off. She winced, and her heart sank. The hologram went dead.

She buried her face in her hands. _No. No, NO!_

Betty got to the living room to find Infantor bent over a piece of paper, marking it up with purple crayon. Several more drawings lay scattered around him. When the brat saw her, he shoved his artwork under the couch and held out his arms, gurgling with delight.

Well! Betty raised an eyebrow. Why doesn't he want me to see those?

As soon as Betty could get away, she found Purrsey. He was curled up in the hall, looking miserable. Betty bent down and petted him, and he gave her a grateful look.

"Poor Purrsey. Listen, what if I said you might be able to help us both?" The cat's eyes lit up. "That's it! I can't promise anything, but I think it's worth a try. Here's what I need you to do..." She whispered in his ear.

Betty returned to the living room and _forced_ herself to pick up that little green creep. "Want to go outside in the sunshine, and I can show you the garden?" He stretched his face into his ugliest smile, goo-gooing and ga-ga'ing.

When she carried him out the door, she glanced over her shoulder. Purrsey was slinking into the living room. Betty gave him a wink.

Five minutes later, Betty handed Infantor to her mother, who was lounging in a lawn chair. "Gotta use the bathroom real quick." She took off. In the hall she met Purrsey, who was clutching Infantor's drawings in her teeth. "Good job!" She took them, patted him on the head and retreated into the bathoom. Infantor's wailing rose up again from the backyard.

"All right! Let's see what we've got here..."

The drawings were in purple and red: tiny stick-figures with pointed ears, surrounded by what might have been either weird gadgets or toys. In other pictures, a taller figure, also with pointed ears as well as a pencil mustache, rubbing its hands.

Betty leaned in closer. In one picture, the mustached figure stood inside a circle with an antenna sticking out the top, and a row of little triangles along the bottom. _Well._ She glanced at the other pictures--yes, there it was again, the same Maximus-figure inside the same circle with the antenna and triangles. And another one.

There was also a sketch of a girl cowering before a huge self-portrait of Infantor, who held a whip. Another picture showed the girl with a KICK ME sign on her back, and Infantor gleefully doing so. Another had her wearing a dunce cap with GALACTIC GOOFBALL written on it. But Betty hardly noticed these.

For the first time in what seemed like forever, she smiled.

She set her bracelet to a new frequency. Time to make another kind of call.

Drastic times called for drastic measures.


	5. Drastic Measures

MikariStar and Barry, thanks for your reviews! It's good to know someone's getting a kick out of this. Barry, your reviews are almost like stories in themselves -- have you written any fanfics?

A short time later, the doorbell rang. Betty ran to answer it, but Dad got there first.

"Why..." He looked down at his visitors. "Hello."

"Good day." A voice like a butler's, coming from a short man dressed in a suit. An oversize fedora, not unlike dad's, was scrunched over his head. Only the slit of a mouth showed; no lips or teeth. His trouser legs hung down as if there were no legs in them, ending in a pair of shoes that appeared sewn to the trouser cuffs.

Beside him stood the greenest woman Dad had ever seen, wearing a floral dress, an enormous platinum wig and star-shaped earrings--and what a huge nose! "Good after-noooooon!" she said in a shrill falsetto.

The man spoke again. "I believe you recently adopted a baby boy?"

Dad scratched his head, regarding this odd pair. "Uh...yes..."

"I'm afraid there's been a dreadful mistake," the man went on. Dad looked at the visitor's hands--they were actually two-pronged claws.

"Body armor," the man explained. "Goes with my job."

"What _is_ your job?"

Betty stood beside her dad. She gave the visitors a wink. "Why, hello! What brings you here, may I ask?"

"Oh!" The green woman shrilled. "It's our baby, you see, our _sweet_ little boy--is that him now?" For Infantor was howling for all he was worth. "Darling!" the green woman waved. "It's mommy!"

Betty's mother appeared at the door, gaping. "You're his natural parents?"

Armored man said, "Oh, he's quite an escape artist. He got out of his crib and out the window, and must have ended up at the adoption agency. We sincerely regret any inconvenience this may have caused."

"It didn't take long to find him!" Greenie yelled above the noise. "We could hear him all the way from _our_ house!"

Dad's eyes narrowed. "I haven't seen you before. Are you new in town?"

Mother appeared and folded her arms. "You could be anybody! Why should we just let you take our baby away?"

Greenie and Armor fidgeted, not seeming to have an answer.

"Mom," said Betty. "They must have some kind of proof with them. Don't you, folks?" Quickly she mouthed _yes!_

Armor said, "Uh...yes, we do."

"You probably just left it in the car, right?" Betty nodded.

"Yep-per!" Greenie shrieked almost to match Infantor. "So we'll just--ah--go get it!" She vanished in a flash.

"Bathroom," said Betty, and ran off.

"My!" Her mother's voice faded behind her. "That girl! I've never known anyone who has to...so often..."

But instead Betty rushed to her room and slammed the door, thankfully shutting out at least some of the screaming--didn't Infantor ever run out of breath? She activated her bracelet. "Sparky!"

"Right here, Chief! I'm in the ship, hovering over your house."

"Good. I've got photos of Infantor here on my bed--my mom took a whole bunch yesterday. Beam me up real quick."

The Galactic Guardians' photo-manipulation equipment was second to none. Five minutes later, Greenie presented Betty's parents with a nylon album decked with Infantor's leering, sneering face. "You see?" Greenie shrilled.

Mom and dad flipped through the pages. "Why," Mom said, "these look like the pictures I took yesterday."

"Here's us at the beach." Armor nodded toward one shot. "And another one at Hollywood--we were so lucky to meet the Olsen twins! We got them to pose with the baby."

"Yeah, that took some doing," said Greenie. "See how _scared_ the girls look with junior between them?"

Betty listened to X-5, watched her parents' faces. Finally mother closed the album and handed it back. Her face was downcast. "Well, if we must, we must."

Betty's heart panged, seeing her parents so sad. But it wouldn't last for long. Besides, she had a galaxy to save.

"Waaaaahhh!" Infantor struggled as mom and dad handed him over. "Bet-ty, Bet-ty!"

Betty turned to her parents. "Maybe I should go along? To help smooth the transition."

Mother's eyes glittered with tears. "Oh, would you, honey? That is so sweet! That's my girl!"

Could it be? Has Betty finally triumphed over that evil brat? I hope so, because now she has Maximus and his plot to deal with--if_ there's still time..._


	6. Racing to San Crystalball

The ship roared into space. Betty smiled, sitting poised in the captain's chair. It felt great to be back in her uniform, her boots, gloves and headgear, ready for action! Sparky and X-5 tore off their disguises.

"Thank goodness!" Sparky sputtered. "I was suffocating in that outfit!"

"I wouldn't have guessed," said X-5, "from the way you were talking."

"Hey, how else could I make myself heard over that racket? Speaking of which--" he turned to the prisoner, who was floating inside a shimmering spherical force field. "Shut up!"

Infantor was in full tantrum mode, face twisted and purple. He flipped and rolled and waved his fists. "It's not fair, it's not fair! But it don't matter. You'll never find the hideout!" Wild laughter.

"We'll see about that!" Betty leaned forward, eyes intent on the main viewscreen. She held out a sheet of notebook paper. On it, she had copied the circle structure from Infantor's Maximus drawings. "X-5. Run a data bank search for any structure with these dimensions. I'll bet that gets us where we need to go!"

Infantor, silent at last, gaped at the paper. "How did youse get that--I mean, that don't mean nothin'. Just a drawing!"

X-5 fed the sheet into the shipboard computer and watched the readout. "Yes, it's a unique structure. Readily recognizable..."

"It's a big ball with an antenna!" Sparky looked over X-5's shoulder. "Just find out where in the galaxy it is!"

X-5 waited while the computer whirred. "Here!" His claw thumped down on a star chart. "Planet San Crystalball, the biggest crystal formation in the galaxy. Like a big jewel."

"Good going! Get us there fast. That's where we rendez-vous with Mr. I.Q.!"

"Any restaurants along the way?" Sparky rubbed his stomach. "This is working up an appetite."

"Sparky!" Betty and X-5 cried. Infantor just floated inside the force field, pouting.

At his lair, Maximus I.Q. watched the multitudes of destroyer robots arrayed on his bank of monitors, and rubbed his hands. Through the windows, the San Crystalball landscape sparkled, spiked with formations that towered into the sky like skyscrapers of blue and green glass.

"At last, our day has come! Striking a deal with Infantor was the smartest thing I have ever done--a move so bold, so daring, so innovative, that only I could have made it!"

Minimus stood beside him. "Uh, 'scuse me, master? I thought it was Infantor's idea--"

Maximus cuffed him, and his head spun around so that his meek face flashed by, then his evil face, meek, evil, meek, evil. Finally the spinning stopped, both faces green with dizziness.

Maximus glared down at him. "You were saying?"

"Nuttin' your vileness, nothing master, nuttin'-reviledness, nothing!" both faces babbled at once.

Maximus, arrayed in red robe, lynx-ears jutting out, pointed to his control panel. "You see this button, Minimus?"

"Uh...no." Minimus was still green, and swaying as if about to fall.

"This crimson one, you dolt!" It was in the middle of the control panel, big as his hand. "When I push it..." His feline face lit up. "It will transmit the order to launch the final, most gigantic wave of destroyer robots! The enemy forces on every planet have been worn down by my previous waves. Just wait till this one hits them! It'll shatter everyone's remaining defenses like Byrellian crystal!" He raised his arms. "At last, I will have conquered the galaxy!"

Minimus' meek face spun to face its master. "Ingenius, your ingeniousness! How'd Infantor ever get you to--I mean, how did you get _him_ to go along with it?"

"Why, simple. He shall receive ownership of every toy and candy shop on every planet in the entire galaxy. You've heard of the kid in the candy store, Minimus? How about the kid who _owns_ all the candy stores?" Maximus clapped his hands, laughing. "Now what baby could ever resist that? _Mu-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"_

Minimus joined in the laughter. Then his evil face asked, "And what have you got planned for Atomic Betty, boss? I know you must have something planned!"

"Right you are, Minimus. I intend to present her with a broom, mop and bucket, and she can spend her whole life following Infantor from store to store, cleaning up all his messes! And he assures me he can make quite a mess!" They both burst out laughing again.

Suddenly there was an electronic whooping noise.

"What?" Maximus whipped his head around, toward the main display. "The proximity alarm? That's impossible! No one could possibly know--"

The ceiling exploded, throwing the villains to opposite ends of the room. When Maximus raised his head, squinting to see through the smoke, he saw--

"Atomic Betty." He sneered. "I might have known!"


	7. How To Disable A Billion Soldier Robots

Betty crouched before Maximus, fists at the ready, Sparky and X-5 on either side of her.

"Sorry, Maximus," she said. "Cleaning up after evil babies is not my idea of a rewarding career. I prefer busting bad guys!"

With the grace of his cat form, Maximus sprang for the button. Betty sprang too, but the villain was closer to it. His hand reached out--closer, closer--

With a howl of triumph, he thumped it down!

Sparky turned even greener. "Oh no!"

"'Oh no' is right," X-5 said. "The robots are on their way to their targets now, and according to my calculations, they shouldn't take more than 11.6 minutes to arrive."

Betty gave Maximus a kick that sent him tumbling across the room. Once he caught his breath, he laughed again, slouching with his back to the wall.

A droning, robotic voice echoed from the walls. _"Now commencing final phase of Operation Maximus Victorious. E.T.A. to targets, ten minutes."_

"Not if I can help it!" Betty yelled. "X-5! Find out how the signal's being transmitted. It's controlling all the robots from every wave! If we can knock it out--"

"No!" Maximus leaped to his feet. "Guards! Seize them!"

Soldier robots swarmed in. Betty leaped off the console and dove into the attackers, kicking one, punching another. They hit the floor, slammed into walls, breaking up, littering the place with fragments.

Sparky did the same. A circle of robots surrounded him, but he only grinned at them. "C'mon, come on! That's it...a little closer..."

They all fired, blasted, rushed him at once. He leaped clear, executing a perfect somersault in midair. By the time he landed on his feet, the robots had blown or smashed each other into titanium confetti. "Woo-hoo!" he yelled, pumping his fist.

The computer voice announced, _"Operation Maximus Victorious proceeding. ETA to targets, five minutes."_

"Five minutes!" Betty punched a robot over her shoulder. It crashed to the floor. "X-5!"

"Working on it." X-5 flew to and fro above the melee. His scanner buzzed and made bursts of static as it sought to interface with the lair's control system.

_"ETA to targets, three minutes."_

"Man!" Sparky decked another robot. "Time flies when you're having fun!"

_"Two minutes."_

"X-5!" Betty yelled.

"Minimus!" Maximus stood glaring in a corner, waving his arms. "Do something!"

Minimus' meek face looked like a scared puppy's. "Call out more robots?"

"I can't!" Maximus raged. "They're all over the galaxy, getting ready to strike!"

"Almost there..." X-5 worked to sync with the system.

_"One minute."_

"Got it!" X-5 pointed out the main window. "It's those three skyscraper-crystals, the ones close together. They make the most powerful antennas in the galaxy, you know."

"Oh, no!" Betty looked out the window. "We'll never knock them down in time...wait...knock them down...That's it! X-5, this place has emergency thrusters--Infantor drew them."

_"What?"_ Maximus and Minimus said together, all three voices, at once.

_"Thirty seconds."_

Betty continued, "Can you activate just some of them, while leaving the others off?"

X-5 replied, "I'm sorry, my system is not following your logic."

"Bowling!" she cried.

The robot's eyes lit up. "Ah! Yes!"

There was a whirring and a beeping as he fed data from his electronic brain into the lair's. Then, a mighty roar shook the place. X-5 gave a metal-armed salute. "Done."

_"Fifteen seconds."_

"Let's fly!" Betty yelled, and the three Galactic Guardians leaped out the hole in the ceiling where they had come in, the starcruiser catching them in its transporter beam and whisking them aboard. Below, Maximus was shouting something at his sidekick. "Reverse it, you fool! Shut it off--"

"I gotta see this!" Sparky pressed his nose to the porthole. Betty and X-5 crowded in behind him.

There was a _fwoosh_ of nuclear flame as the thrusters on one side of the lair kicked in. The force rolled the structure onto its side and onward, speeding across the landscape like a fireworks-pinwheel. Through its main window, Betty could see the two villains tumbling around inside. Maximus was yelling something; Betty wondered if it was printable. With the speed of a runaway Arturian Fusion Locomotive it raced over the crystal landscape, bowling right into the three antennas, shattering them to bits!

"Wow!" Sparky pressed his hands and nose to the porthole. "Look at all those pieces! Like crystal snow flurries!"

They were a sight to behold, filling the entire sky, sparkling as they caught the starlight on the way down. Betty wished she had a camera.

X-5 put a claw to the side of his head. "I'm picking up reports that the robot fleets are going haywire, crashing into each other, spinning off into space. The suns of some star systems are catching millions of robots in their gravitational pull and dragging them in."

"That's gonna be a lot of cooked robots!" Betty giggled. She stood between Sparky and X-5, and put a gloved hand on each shoulder. "Well done, guys! Let's go."

"Settin' course for Earth!" Sparky whooped, punching buttons.

"And on the way--" Betty shot a glance at their prisoner--"we'll drop my _ex_-brother at the Galactic Juvenile Detention headquarters."

Infantor bawled and wailed inside his force field. "It's not fair, it's not _fair! Waaaaaah-haaaaahhh!"_

The ship zoomed up through the crystal snowfall and out into space.

That night, Betty relaxed with her parents in her living room, sipping lemonade. The television showed a soccer game. Purrsey was curled up in mother's lap and had never looked happier.

"The place seems a lot different without the little guy," mother said, petting the cat.

Dad was holding out the remote, channel-surfing. "Sure does. It's a lot quieter."

"Isn't it, though?" Mother gave a faint smile. "I'd forgotten how _noisy_ those little ones can be."

"Or the messes they can make at the dinner table!" Dad chuckled. "Remember when Betty was a baby?"

Betty giggled. "I wasn't that bad, was I?"

"Never like that boy! Oh, I hated to see him go, but once things quieted down, I realized how good we have it with you, and what a wonderful young lady you've grown into. Isn't that right, dear?" she turned to Dad.

"Yessir! I'd rather have one of you, Betty, than a dozen of him or any other child. C'mere, daughter!"

Betty went over and snuggled in between her parents. Even Purrsey didn't seem to mind, purring in mother's lap. _Daughter,_ Betty thought, beaming. _I like the sound of that._

"And just think," said mother. "I was just about to show you how to change his diapers!"


End file.
